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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Beaver" manure" and soil fertility

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  • From: Hélène Dessureault <interverbis@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Beaver" manure" and soil fertility
  • Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:31:15 -0400

Doug,

Judging from what the beaver dams are made of to-day (alder, poplar branches mainly soft leafy wood so yes branches, rarely coniferous, packed with silt and clay), the old beaver dam that we are using as fertiliser was probably the same. We do find here and there pieces of wood still intact.

When this soil is used as fertiliser I feel that it would be difficult to add too much boron, if indeed it contains boron. It's not as if you distributed a concentrated form of boron (Like Donna said borax) on the soil. In that case, you do have to be careful about quantities. I am mostly noticing the changes in the vegetation, which is spectacular, and getting the impression that this is a positive change and I was curious to see if the nature of the change could be explained by the presence of boron.

I am a great believer in the value of weeds, in the garden. I use mulch and weed out only what gets in the way. I can mostly identify all weeds growing in my garden, and I am noticing new weeds lately. Also I am noticing reseeding of some flowers and herbs which I have not planted for a few years, such as cosmos, calendula, borage dill. As if the seeds had been there lying dormand all along waiting for the ideal conditions to sprout.

We are also receiving more than our share of rain these days. But it does not compare to what is happening further south. My sympathy is with you!

Back to the subject as we have been reminded to keep on track and label correctly the subject heading.... beaver manure is great!

Hélène




----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Woodard" <dwoodard@becon.org>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 3:25 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Gooseberry help


Helene, I wonder if your old beaver dam material is in effect "ramial
chipped wood" that didn't have to be chipped, plus silt. I expect that
this material might contain a certain amount of boron as well as other
things.

Be careful with boron, plants need only small amounts and too much is
toxic. It's easy to get too much. Plants vary in their requirement for
boron. I seem to remember that alfalfa is especially greedy for it.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario


Hélène Dessureault wrote:
Donna, can you tell us more about the boron effect on beet?
I did have problems with poor beet performance along with slow fruits
trees development. I tried manures, different mulches, a local source of
dolomite with a generous content in magnesium which helped without
spectacular improvements. Lately, I found a new source of amendement
to our sandy acidic hillside soil that seemed to have
noticiably improved both beets and fruit trees, and began to suspect a
common denominator without knowing that it might be related to boron....

We have a major stream on our property, often occupied by beavers. They
have diverted its course recently revealing an ancient beaver dam along
one side which must have served at one time to block another tributary
which is now just a trickle but must have been more significant at some
point. This ancient beaver dam is made of amazingly rich soil, a
heavy combination of clay and rotted wood, very black and practically
greasy at times, and we have been dismantling it and using this soil
progressively as a fertilizer, with great results. Since, we have
noticed that the leaves are darker and healthier on the fruit trees AND
the beet were much larger, tender and sweet last Fall, not to mention
general improvement in the quality and water retention to the soil.

Where is boron generally found? Do you think that this soil could
contain boron?

Hélène
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